Did you think I'd disappeared?

Just thought I'd pop by and let you know that I haven't disappeared from blogland.....Oooohhh nooooo!! I travelled up to my parents Friday (the traffic was a nightmare - Leeds festival need I say more?) Any who, I've done a little bit of sewing, met up with some friends, bought some much needed lining fabric and had some lovely home cooked food. Today we went for a walk along the beach in South Shields and then polished off some very tasty fish and chips (it always tastes better when you eat it by the sea). Ted, my Mam's westie loved paddling in the sea and running on the sand.....he's fast asleep now though I think we wore him out, bless!

So tomorrow I'm off to visit my Dad and then it will be time to tackle the traffic of all the bank holiday'ers travelling back home. Grrrr.....not a good driver in slow traffic!!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.....xx

Wanna peek???

The undercoating is finished, ready for the skirting to be fitted.......

Lights off (hanging out of ceiling)

Lights on.......(still hanging out of ceiling!)

What do you think so far then??

A sister blog for bagladee

http://emma-bagladee-reviews.blogspot.com/2009/08/fish-cake-mash-and-peas-for-two-d.html

this is my new sister blog called bagladee-reviews its my little place where I can write about the products I road test and have fun along the way.....why not pop by and follow me.....please :D

A little bit of hand sewing

I always find really therapeutic and I've been trying to get as much in after work as possible. These are some new smaller brooches I'm working on....not quite there yet but wont be long before they make their way onto my website.

XFighters & a WINNER!!

Last night was totally awesome!!! I could bore you all to death for hours talking about it (which I wont, I promise) but even though we didn't get back home til 3am this morning it was so worth it. I now want to ride a motor cross bike and be the first woman rider to enter XFighters!! ;)

The setting for the night was amazing, the dis-used Battersea Power Station. I had never been up close to it before let alone inside the grounds. It was great!! They actually entered the track arena through a window!!!!!

There were fire works, and cool lights, a huge crowd and 12 amazing riders.....only one crash which was Mat Rebeaud but he's OK. The atmosphere was great and Levi Sherwood lived up to his nick name "Rubber Kid". He's my fav!!

OK I'm sure you would all like to know who gets the goody bag? Thank you to you all who took the time and went over to my website and checked it out, from the comments it looks like I'm almost there. All your suggestions were great and soon I will be adding them to the website.

A few people said they were having problems when viewing the online shop page, that the photos weren't lining up. I have no idea why this is happening, it looks fine when I view it in mrsite and my website and other people say it looks fine to them. Maybe if I play around with it a little it might solve it. You were all very kind, I was expecting some brutal criticism but there was none, either you were all being nice ;) or the site is OK :)

Back to the draw, using random.org the winner is:

Number 5: FairlyGirly

Congrats to you, I will email you for your snail mail address in the morning :D I still haven't finished adding things to the bag but once its ready to send I will post a quick picture. Thanks to you all again, be back soon with some photo's of the studio and some hand sewing.

Back with more umph!! (+giveaway)

I had been meaning to write this post some time last week but just never seemed to get round to it. This is happening a lot lately so there maybe some sporadic posting over the next week or so :o/ sorry peeps.

Anyway, going back to many, many posts ago when I first set up my website. I asked bloggers, etsians and friends alike if they would be so kind to pop by it and tell me what they thought. It was a brilliant response and lots of very sensible suggestions were made (although not sure why I hadn't thought of them myself?? Oh yeah that's right, me sensible...naaaaahhh!!) One piece of constructive criticism was that they pages themselves weren't very interactive eg. when you went to click on the pictures they didn't take you anywhere. What a fantastic piece of criticism.....its took me quite a while and lots of mistakes and re-adding pages after messing it all up.

So now I ask you again if you would do the honours click one of the pics above, pop by check it out have a little play around, pop back here and leave a comment telling me what you think.

Leave your email address and I will pop you all into a hat/random number generator and someone will win a mystery gift bag full or goodies, well its nice to give something in return for some feedback :D

Again thank you all of you who left supportive comments yesterday, I'm doing exactly what I'm told and focusing on the good things......so I'll leave this post up until Sunday as I'll be painting between now and Friday and Saturday were going to see the Redbull Xfighters (fingers crossed it doesn't rain!!). And Sunday I'll announce who the lucky winner is.

huge hugs xxx

Lost - revisted

After a couple of hours painting the studio I felt the need to pop back and post again. I spent a little while after work updating my CV and reading the lovely supportive comments left by super duper bloggy friends, this gave me a lot of food for thought. So whilst painting and listening to Smooth FM, things started to slip back into perspective......

Chris made me realise that I am not alone in either feeling like this or experiencing the effects of the economy, I got lovely hugs from Diane, Rachel and Daisie (Alex) and Kim made me remember that I should always focus my energies on what makes me feel happy rather than the negative aspects.

And as always Andrea you are totally spot on with your advice: "don't sweat the small stuff and its all small stuff..that's not taking away from you that you are having a horrible time its just to give you a ray of light in knowing that everything is always happening perfectly even though you can't always see it..life is challenges and without these challenges we wouldn't get any better as people or any stronger or learn anything and so there would be no moving forward just simply existing...take a day at a time matey and things will work out."

I love blog land and all the lovely people I've met along the way, you truly are the best!!! Hugs back to you all.......xxxx

Lost!!

I never knew that there was a place that existed in the universe where you would feel that in your mind you were disappearing into?!?!

I cant quite explain it and not even sure how to get out of/fix it but after months of feeling like everything was going in the direction I've always dreamed of.....all of a sudden I've just dropped off a cliff.

Some of you may remember a post a very long time ago I wrote about almost being made redundant....well I'm not going to go into the boring details but since then we have lost nearly half of the work force due to redundancies and the so called 'lucky' people who are left behind are having to pick up A LOT of extra work to compensate for the loss of heads. Its depressing, stressful and soul destroying. Everything seems like a thankless task.

Part of me is thinking, I should be lucky that I still have a job to be able to pay the mortgage and bills....and then there's the other part of me feeling resentment that I have spent 5 years giving the best of me to the company just to feel like I wish I wasn't still in the job :(

I'd love to concentrate on bagladee full time but in reality it just doesn't cover the cost of living.....even if you do drop your prices dramatically and spend every other waking hour trying to promote yourself.................*sigh*

Sorry for the rather depressing post guys, just feel like I can vent my worries here in an impartial environment. I promise tomorrow there will be a more cheery post with some pretty pictures.

xx

Bye bye kitty bag...

This week I said goodbye to this sweet little bag and matching purse. Its travelling all the way to Australia, Sydney to be more specific to a lovely lady called Jennifer **wave**. Jennifer even said she would display some of my postcards on the notice board in their staff room.....which just happens to be the Sydney Opera House, how exciting!!!!

This is my first ever sale to Aussie land and I hope it wont be the last.

Today I have spent most of the day filling and sanding, prepping the walls ready for painting tomorrow. I had the very tedious job of trimming all the tape from the beams, which took forever....but was so worth it once you could see the lovely treated wood against the pale pink walls. (Cant wait for you to be finished my lovely little den).

Studio update!!!

Look isn't it pretty?

Newly plastered walls....

Looking warm and homely already with the lights on.....

Nice and light and airy with the window open....

And its even got Nell's paw of approval......"my new bed will go over there" she said :)

TLBG Wednesday

If you pop over to that little bit greener you will be able to read the first TLBG Wednesday posts that both Rachel and I have written, thanks ever so much for those of you that are taking part....you're doing us proud ladies!! And if you want to be a member then drop us an email details here.

Please vote for me!

wow two posts in one day again :)

Hello can you remember the little sneak photo that was yellow and orange felty something I posted a little while ago. Well this is what I had made, a lovely SUMMERY cushion. I made it to enter a competition over on Fiskars Fiskarette blog/website. The brief was that you had to make something with a summertime theme to it.

So I set myself off to making this cute little cushion, voting opens today and ends 23rd August, I am the only entrant that has used textiles so please, please, please vote for me and my little cushion.

HERE!!

All you have to do it fill in the contact form and say that you are voting for bagladee :D

There are lots of prizes and I am even going to share some of them with you all in a give away IF I win.....so what you waiting for get yourselves over there. There's lots of other fun things to do too.

thanks :D xx

I've been a good girl

I have, honestly!! Since the studio is plastered and will be getting painted next weekend it was time to start sorting....who knew you would collect so many crafty things in the space of 6months. Well that's what I'm telling myself because I'm sure I didn't half as much this time last year. I nearly broke my back carrying just one of the fabric totes I have in my garage. I even shocked myself when I emptied it onto the lounge floor......WOW what a collection. But it is starting to look like I've got an obsession with buying fabric and not using it.

Chris sat me down and trying not to get stressy when I told him I'm waiting for some fabric from the states said it was kinda getting cramped in the garage and blah blah I do get the point though...it was like being in rehab or AA, my name is Emma and I'm addicted to fabric! :D but I love it so.

So the decision was made that I had to pick 4 fabrics from my stash and 'get rid' not my words I might add. So as you can see above these 4 beautiful, vibrant, sassy fabrics are in my etsy shop for a bargain knock down price. I have said in the listings that I will give major discount if someone wants to bulk any but I thought I'd throw it out to my fellow bloggers that if you want to make me an offer on any or you would like to swap for something please get in touch. I'd love them to go to a new home.....so offer away.

Excitment level : OVERLOAD!!!

OMG I don't think there is a word in the English dictionary that explains the level of excitedness (which is not in the english dictionary) I am feeling right now!!!!

Gary the plasterer has gone, dust sheets taken up, the floors vacuumed and mopped......and................I now have a COMPLETELY PLASTERED STUDIO!!!!!!! Wooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooooooo! OK think I may have over done it with the Woo Hoo. Did you notice I called it my studio rather than: the loft, attic, conversion.....its now a studio, it feels and certainly is starting to look like one. I haven't taken any photo's of it yet as I thought I'd wait until the plaster had dried out a little so it looks more pinky than dirty brown :D

Today I have also completed my second draft of the book text, which I am pleased that I've managed to get it done before the weekend....and even written a small bio. I was really struggling with it, most people would say duh you know yourself so why cant you write about yourself. I just couldn't every time I had written something down and read it back I just sounded so BORING and I know I'm not.

I read on the Internet that you should write it as the third person but inject your personality into it, obviously in my head I was thinking...."OK Emma write it and reign it in a little" as there is a fine line in my life between funny and just plain ridiculous :D

So I jotted a few lines down and when I read it back I actually laughed out loud!! It is totally me! Funny and light hearted but in a semi serious manner. And if I could imagine what my bio would look like, it would have a cheeky little smile on it.

An exciting day.....

because we have the plasterer in doing the walls in my sewing room/studio today :D I'm so excited. I have lots of things to distract me so I don't keep peeking to see what he's done. I want to wait until the end of the day to see how he's got on. Hopefully he will have finished by tomorrow and it will mean that I will be playing the waiting game whilst its drying....I've lost count of how may times I asked "When can I paint it??" and I'm sure its starting to wear a little thin with the other half :D

So on my list of things to do.....there will be some etsy listing, website tweaking, email writing, some sewing, gluing, writing and I would imagine quite a few cups of tea/coffee and shhhhhh maybe some biscuits too :/

Did you all pop over to our new blog yesterday?? Thank you to all of you that have joined so far we will be adding you to the members list over the next couple of days. So excited to see what tips/advice/tutorials/links you all have. Don't we all want to be 'that little bit greener'?

The secret is out!!

At last, I can let you all in on our secret project! I'm very excited about this but a bit nervous too, so I hope you'll like it! Rachel and I have launched today a new blog called, as if you couldn't guess from the above pic, That Little Bit Greener, and you can find us HERE! Please do click over and take a look. The basic idea is for it to be a central point for all of us in this crafty/bloggy community to share information, links, tutorials etc that will, hopefully, help us to become "that little bit greener". We are not expecting everyone to become 100% green, eco-warriors (because we are certainly not that either!) but rather to just encourage each other in making small changes, that will hopefully add up to make a difference. The site will obviously be developing as we go along, so please do let us know your thoughts or suggestions.
So what are you waiting for? Click over and take a look!

I have a secret!! Sssshhhhhhhh!!!

Can you remember a little way back, not too long ago when I said "I've just embarked on a collaboration project with my bloggy friend Rachel, which is both scary and exciting all at once :) I cant really say anything about it yet but all will reveal by us both soon!!!" Well I still cant say too much but what I can tell you is that LAUNCH DAY IS TOMORROW!! Wednesday 5th August, its green, we want YOU ALL to be involved and we hope that its going to make a difference.

So make sure you stop by here tomorrow to find out all about what we've been doing and the link to take you somewhere special!!! ;)

Monogram birthday cushion

Remember this???

Well now the birthday girl (Hi Andrea) has received her gifts I can now show you how it started....

I made a card template and cut her initial out of black felt, pinned it onto this gorgeous magenta felt.....

And sewed the initial to it.

I then placed and pinned it to the cushion piece, added a flower and a little sparkle.......

Et Voila.....one custom monogrammed cushion.

I think I have become slightly obsessed with making cushions.......there's more to come.

:D

Now for some totally random bits of info :: I'm sporting rather a lovely 2 inch burn on my right hand from the photo shoot on Friday that is gradually getting more stingy :( I burnt it on the iron just in case you were thinking I was tortured while I was there ;) :: last night was so much fun, food, wine and girly chat.....perfect :: Andrea loved her birthday gifts which were this cushion (of course) a huge chrome piggy bank and a very gorgeous note book from a fellow blogger Picciolo (**wave**) :: sleeping is becoming an issue again ggrrrrrrr, why wont my brain switch off???

How did it go yesterday?

When I got up first thing I thought, Oh no not a migraine not today! But after a sweet cup of tea and a wash I was feeling a little better. It was such a long day yesterday but sooooo worth it.....there were parts I'd missed out of the written instructions (most probably because they come second nature to me and hadn't realised I'd missed them out), I made all three of the items for the book whilst being watched the whole time and it wasn't as bad as I thought, and amazingly enough I didn't make any mistakes!!! I know!!

I got a sneak peak of some of the photos but declined on seeing any of the head shots John took of me, because I would have hated them all :) We made a lot of adjustments to the text and have all the photos completed (apart from the cover shot and a few intro photos) but the main bulk of it is there. I just need to add to the text and email it off again!! Wow, this is so exciting (for me, hope its interesting for you) I cant wait to hold the finished book in my sweaty little palms!! :D

Chris was an absolute sweety yesterday, he drove me all the way to Birmingham and back and disappeared whilst we did the shoot (didn't moan once). He came back promptly to pick me up, packed all my stuff into the car and then when we got home he said "go and put the kettle on". I said "yes sir" with a smile on my face. Then when I went into the kitchen he said "well if you don't put the kettle on then you cant have one of these!" My eyes nearly popped out of my head when he handed me a dozen box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts (my total fav!!) for those of you in the UK will know that other than Harrods in London and Selfridges in Birmingham stocking them, these things are like gold dust!!! So to have a whole box was just 'swwweeeeetttt'.

They were a 'well done' gift from Chris, isn't he lovely :) I can hear you all thinking it, "How are you going to eat all those doughnuts?"......easy we had one each last night, one each for breakfast this morning, Chris will eat one later and I will probably have another for brunch tomorrow :D the rest I will not tell you when I will eat them because you will totally think I am little miss piggy. And this is me looking very 'non-attractive' wearing a Krispy Kreme hat with Nell fast asleep on my knee.

I'm off out tonight to a lovely place for good food, good company, LOTS OF WINE, and lots of chattering as I'm going for a meal with my friend Andrea (mybeadyeye) to celebrate her birthday, so there's even going to be some presents!!!! (I'm in such a good mood today!! Must be all that sugar) :D